IMHO, you're going nowhere without 50 hours multi
Wow. Really?
That's arrogant.
Particularly for a low-experience pilot up and coming through the ranks, there's a lot to do without having a lot of multi engine experience. One may not be going to work for the airlines, but the airlines will still be there when the multi experience comes. No big deal.
I make more money in a single engine airplane than I did as a 747 captain. Go figure.
I like it better, too.
- If you go IMC while doing this, the SP is no longer a legally required crew-member.
Not true. 14 CFR 91.109(C) requires a safety pilot when the pilot manipulating the controls is wearing a view limiting device (simulated instrument flight). The purpose of the safety pilot is see and avoid. See and avoid is a requirement whether IMC or VMC, whether IFR or VFR. The pilot manipulating the controls is still vision-restricted whether in a cloud, or not. So long as the pilots vision is obscured, a safety pilot is required.
I've been debating about going the cargo route to get my multi time up. I just wonder how airlines feel with pilots getting multi time as a safety pilot. Lol kind of a toss up decision I have to make.
Say again??
A "toss-up" between using 91.109(c) to inflate your time, or lowering yourself to fly cargo? You do realize that a lot of folks do or have flown cargo for a living, and it's not simply a stepping stone to get somewhere, or the boobie prize that you accept in order to boost your way into a poverty-paying regional seat. Right?
It's not really a toss-up, you see. If you have enough experience to fly cargo, then you aren't really trying to scrape together those first few hours of multi. Flying for a living, with a schedule, training standards, and specific time and duty regulations is not at all the same as renting a Seneca and cobbling together a few hours as you flit around the country.
You'll be far better off getting real world experience than trying to "time build. If you want hours in your logbook, commit the crime and falsify them. Make them up. Invent them. Visit your local airport and jot down N numbers, and put imaginary time in your logbook. Do that if it's all it's worth to you. Flight time isn't worth much. You'll eventually be found out when your abilities and decision making doesn't match the hen scratches in your logbook, but then the same applies if you attempt to "time build" and don't have a solid foundation and understanding of your craft. It shows up in a simulator, and on the line.
A few years back I was doing check airman work for a 135 government contractor. An individual came along who had been time building, and had a resume with regional airline experience, and training cited for well known facilities. He claimed time in type, and the individuals who prepared him for his checkride felt he was ready. I was asked to give him an evaluation flight in a lowly Cessna 210 one evening.
He didn't make it past the oral and I didn't give a formal question and answer. I knew more than enough about him before we got to the airplane, simply from our conversation and ultimately the way he preflighted the airplane, to know I didn't want to let him near the airplane. He was ultimately dismissed and left with his tail between his legs. Some fact-checking brought down all his experiences. Why try to make it up, why try to walk before you can run, when you can simply go get a job?
Most cargo jobs, however, require IFR Part 135 minimums. A few will take you at less, if you are competitive (Flight Express, etc). These are stepping stones, but not simply what you do if you don't feel like buying time. These are places where you go and work hard. You'll earn your experience and you'll learn something. Far more than you'll learn by "time building." You could call it experience building, if you like, but there's no way to purchase experience. Time, which isn't worth much at all, can be bought and sold all day long, or simply invented and written in your logbook.
I highly urge you to seek out experience.
Also someone told me to split cost with another student, but I don't feel like dropping $8,000 to get the magic 100 of multi that airlines want.
There's nothing magic about it. Hiring is done competitively. Whether 100 hours is a published minimum or not is irrelevant. If you happen to apply at a time when movement is slow and more experienced pilots are applying, the real minimums are the competitive ones, which means you've got to compete against everyone else who has an application on the table. If the published minimums are 100 hours but everyone there has 5,000, then the real minimums are actually 5,000 hours.
Your basic qualification for a flying job isn't your degree. It's your experience. It's not the total hours, but something more intrinsic to your base experience level. The guy who's been flying dirty airplanes in the clag doing cargo runs at night, who's had to do single pilot IFR with a junk autopilot, who's been flying to minimums, or otherwise working his judgement and working the airplane, and who can show real world work history, is more competitive.
You've got a thousand hours right now. You've been flight instructing for less than a year. You're in good shape, and apparently staying quite busy. Does your flight school have multi-engine aircraft? Do others in the area? What's your rush?
It's about the journey. Everyone is impatient to get to the end. I'll tell you what's at the end. You die. The journey getting there, however, is all-important, and it's all you've got. Enjoy it. Take your time. Don't be in too big a rush to short cut the system. You'll get there soon enough.